“What inspired you to publish this book?” A reporter queried through the microphone placed before him and tossed me an expectant look.

          I gave him and everyone else a professional smile as I briefly glanced at the number of reporters and photographers present. There were over thirty reporters in the conference room where they had their laptops open, typing furiously on their keyboard each time I answer a question. My smile grew bigger in contentment when I witness my portrait and my book as posters on the wall.

          “I published Ugly hoping to encourage teenage girls and boys who are struggling to accept themselves. This concept is inspired by my own experience where I pushed through the hard times during high school trying to accept myself for who I am,” I said. “Of course, someone gave me the biggest strength throughout my ups and downs.”

          “Who is that someone?” Another reporter asked.

          I managed a shy grin. “My boyfriend, Oh Sehun. He’s been together with me since high school and he never left my side.”

          “Is he your first love?” The reporter at the back of the room chimed in.

          My breath hitched. I bit my bottom lip, the grin on my face slowly turning into a forced smile. Memories of high school flashed through my mind and this resulted in the wave of uncomfort gyrating at the pit of my stomach. This influx of unexplained emotions made me feel like throwing up.

          “He’s not,” I confessed and gave them a tight smile. The room broke into murmurs and I felt more photographs being taken at that instant. “Nonetheless, there is a saying that first love never works out. I have never regretted choosing Sehun and if I were to turn back time, I’ll still choose Sehun.”

          “Do you think you’re pretty now?” A female reporter seated at the front row asked.

          “I don’t measure myself with society's standards of attractiveness,” I said. “I measure myself with confidence, and that is what I teach all my readers through my book too. If switching my glasses to contact lenses, tidying up my hair and applying light make up make me confident, then I’d do it. However, if it makes me pretty, yet not confident about myself, then why should I bother?”

          “To feel good about yourself, you have to accept yourself and be confident; not doll up and ask yourself if you look pretty. When you measure yourself in terms of confidence, you’ll more likely be able to accept yourself first.”

          “Baby,” Sehun cooed, rubbing the back of my hand as he focused on the road with his other hand on the steering wheel. “You’re so quiet. Is everything okay?”

          I nodded, giving him a small smile. “I’m just thinking about the book conference I had this morning,” I told him, covering his hand with mine.

          “About Jongin?” He asked, a finger tapping on the steering wheel as he waited for the green traffic light. “I heard about it.”

          “Yeah,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “About how stupid I used to be. I’m kicking myself for letting someone so trivial to me now, lead me in circles during high school.”

          Sehun laughed. “Well, he’s trivial to you now only because you have a hunk as a boyfriend!”

          “Oh, shut up,” I rolled my eyes, laughing along with him. “I can’t believe I am allowing our old classmates see how much of a hunk my boyfriend has become.”

          He hummed, pondering upon something on his mind before speaking. “Will Jongin appear at our high school class gathering later?”

          “Maybe,” I shrugged. “But I don’t really care. He’s nothing but two cents in my life now.”

          Deep down in my heart, I truly meant my words.

          “If it isn’t my man, Sehun!” Chanyeol exclaimed, grinning widely at the sight of his friend. Noticing that I was standing beside him, he gave me a surprised look and gasped. “Are you…”

          “Hold on,” Sora, one of Naeun’s friends, glanced at me with the same expression. “Aren’t you Yoon Haera, the nerd, no offense, of our class who stopped attending school after the Winter Ball?”

          “But appeared during the finals of our senior year and claimed the title of a valedictorian for our batch?” Baekhyun continued Sora’s sentence, gaping at me.

          Miyeon, another ex-classmate of mine, walked towards me. “I can’t believe you were the Haera we used to bully,” she said, biting her lip as she scrutinized my face. “You look so different now.”

          I gave them a tight smile, sighing. “Nothing’s that big of a difference,” I shrugged. “I merely replaced my glasses with contact lenses, switched my hairstyle and put on some light make up. All of you are exaggerating.”

          “How are we exaggerating!” Hyungwon, the boney guy with curled hair in my senior class, cried out. “I would never expected the Yoon Haera in high school to become a successful woman with such self empowerment.”

          Chanyeol nodded, sighing. “Who knew Haera would become such an influencer among the teenagers with her newly published book? Man, we basically gave her the inspiration for her book!”

          “Even so, there was nothing we could do back then,” Sora admitted. “Anyone who disobeyed Naeun would’ve been bullied by her as well. But karma has its way, we basically got her expelled the day after Winter Ball. It was a commotion.”

          I blinked, not understanding their words as I glanced at Sehun questioningly. “What do you mean by that?”

          “You see, we aren’t exactly the most heartless and cruelest people,” Yeonmi, the quieter girl among Naeun’s group of friends, chimed in. “Anyone would have pointed out that Naeun was being exceptionally overboard. Sure, it was amusing at first, but we felt that she was being too much.”

          “Well basically, we gathered a group of people who disapproved of Naeun’s childish actions and had a meeting. We called ourselves the ANCs, people of Anti-Naeun Club,” Sora winked at me. “We collected our evidence of her deeds and gave it to the principal. It shocked everyone in the school board.”

          Jaehyun, who has been listening to our conversation all the while, laughed. “You should have seen h